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SEO vs. SEM. Which is Right for Your Business?

People often confuse the terms Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and is used interchangeably.  But there is a difference which is instrumental in determining your digital plan. Understanding your options in targeting your customers will help increase your ROI and brand visibility.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization or SEO helps you to optimize your website to receive organic visitors through search engine result pages (SERP).
Relevant and multiple keywords form the other part of the SEO. It brings a huge volume of organic traffic.

What is SEM?

Search Engine marketing diverts traffic to your site through paid or sponsored ad listings. PPC or Pay-Per-Click ads are the most commonly known in SEM, the most popular being Google Adwords.

So, which one is better for your business?

There are different opinions when it comes to whether SEO or SEM has to be the right one. Some say SEO is better of the two as it is cheaper with quality leads. But it needn’t be true in all scenarios.

Pros and Cons: SEO

  • Brand awareness

Your target keywords for your preferred audience is the way to increase SEO for your business. By ranking the keywords and earning a suitable place in search results will increase your brand awareness.

  • Stronger Branding

Publishing blogs is a good way to increase your branding.  When quality content becomes relevant to the audience, it becomes easier to acquire leads. This aids in building your brand stronger.

  • The Cons: Highly Competitive and Time-Consuming

When a business is just starting, it is extremely difficult to rank for specific keywords that are already established by the competitors. Developing long-tail keywords is a better option. It takes a long time for the keywords to rank and starts giving the desired results. It could take weeks and even months before the traffic started to flow.

  • Good Content Strategy

Publishing regular content might help you gain traffic. But if you lack a proper content strategy, you will not gain higher and better organic traffic.

SEM: Pros and Cons

  • At the Top

The first page of a search engine is where everyone wants to be. So, by investing in paid ads along with proper descriptions and well-crafted ads might take you to the desired spot – at the top

  • Increase Brand Visibility

With paid ads, you can select just the people you want and weed out others. This is not possible with SEO where you cannot control the type of people visiting your website.

  • Cons: Expensive and Needs Constant Investment

PPC ads are expensive and if you don’t constantly optimize your ads, you will end up losing a lot of money.  They also need constant investment to keep them running. If your ads bring in profits, it does make sense to invest, but not when you are losing money.

The Final Decision

So, what should you choose? Each business is different. You should be aware of your audience, what your strategies should be. Well, a perfect blend or combination of both SEO and SEM might be the right answer for you. A decision well-taken when in consultation with experts. Not sure how to proceed? Dinero can help you chart your business strategies.

 

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